There has been much talk about the pronounced collective traits of tech-consumed Millennials and how they are so different than previous generations. If you are too old to be a Millennial or too young to be considered a Generation X, you might be what an Australian sociologist is calling ‘xennials’.
Defined as the generation born between 1982 and 2004, millennials are aged between 13 and 35. The generation before, Gen X, spanned another 20 years, beginning in 1961 and ending in 1981.
“The idea is there’s this micro or in-between generation between the Gen X group – who we think of as the depressed flannelette-shirt-wearing, grunge-listening children that came after the Baby Boomers and the millennials – who get described as optimistic, tech savvy and maybe a little bit too sure of themselves and too confident,” said Dan Woodman, Associate Professor of Sociology at The University of Melbourne, speaking to Australian lifestyle site Mamamia.
“It was a particularly unique experience. You have a childhood, youth and adolescence free of having to worry about social media posts and mobile phones… We learned to consume media and came of age before there was Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and all these things where you still watch the evening news or read the newspaper,” noted Woodman.
